Mocha Brownies

For most people, brownies are a cozy, heavy dessert that are baked primarily during the cooler winter months. I buck the trend. I start to crave brownies most when the birds start to chirp, the sun stays up until 8pm, and it’s shorts and bathing suit weather. Totally irrational, and probably not smart, but the taste buds want what the taste buds want. Apparently, my taste buds want rich, dense, fudgy brownies during the spring and summer months. So, I appease them. A few weeks ago, I fell head over heels in love with the Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. They took me back to my high school days, to a simpler time, a time when a really good brownie could right all of those teenage wrongs. I decided that I needed to make more frosted brownies in the future. As you can see, I didn’t wait very long. I positively adore my Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Frosting, and decided that was the perfect next step in my frosted brownie journey.

I took those amazing chocolate fudge brownies and adapted them for my mocha purposes, and then slathered my (slightly tweaked) espresso buttercream over top. Rich, fudgy brownies spiked with espresso and topped with a fluffy cloud of buttery-sugar-espresso-ness. (That’s definitely a word.) If you love coffee-flavored sweets, you’re going to fall in love with these brownies. Amazingly, I’m not even a coffee drinker, but I *LOVE* any mocha-inspired drinks or treats. I suppose that’s probably because mocha involves chocolate. Go figure, right?!

Directions:

1. Make the Brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch-square baking dish and line with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the edges. Butter the parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Place a medium, heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan (do not let it touch the water) and add the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Stir occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and whisk in the granulated and brown sugars, along with the instant espresso powder. Whisk in the egg, the yolk, and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture all at once, and fold it into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula until combined.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely; meanwhile, make the frosting.

5. Make the Frosting: Mix the instant espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated. Scrap the sides of the bowl, add the heavy cream, and again whip briefly at medium-high speed until thoroughly incorporated.

8. Spread the frosting onto the cooled brownies, and cut into squares. Store brownies in an airtight container, or tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 5 days.

I do love coffee flavored sweets and these mocha brownies sound amazing. And since they have coffee in them it’s perfectly acceptable to have them for breakfast….and during the rest of the day of course! Have a nice weekend.

Like you, I’m not a coffee drinker, but I do LOVE the smell of coffee, and I”m willing to try anything that tastes like coffee at least once. These brownies are so pretty, and I bet they taste god, too.

Mocha Brownies need to be in my life! 🙂 My sweetheart and I are not buttercream fans (regrettably), so how do you think these would taste with a mocha mascarpone frosting? Your blog makes my heart happy!

I like the way you think! I was at the store earlier and bought some unsweetened chocolate, thinking I’d make one of your older brownie recipes, but I never made it past today’s post. I have to admit to changing the recipe slightly-I didn’t have the instant espresso powder, but I have an espresso machine so I used two shots in the brownies and a small amount in the buttercream. The texture of the brownies was a little more cake-like most likely due to the extra liquid, but the taste was still great!

Wow these look great! I’m having trouble though because we don’t have instant coffee (espresso powder) in our house, just the beans and machine, so I’d be using freshly made espresso, it’s going to stuff up the liquid/solid ratio and they’ll come out yummy but soggy, taste good but not appealing to eat 🙁 Can you suggest how I could get around this?

These looked like they are to die for!!! LOVE IT! Can’t wait to try these! Just one question though…how do you cut them so nicely? Everytime I cut my brownies, parts of it always come up with the knife and I don’t get a nice clean cut like yours. Is there a special trick to that? Thanks so much! LOVE your blog!!!

Hi Alexandria, I do it one of two ways – I either use a large pizza slicer to cut right through into rows, or I use a large, sharp chef’s knife. When using the knife, I start at one end, and cut in one, fluid motion, with the knife down along the board, and then slide it out, don’t lift it up. It’s not always perfect, but it’s the best results I get. Don’t saw in and out and don’t pull up. Hope that helps!

I tried this recipe this afternoon. Tasty! I noticed the frosting wasn’t as stiff as I liked, but with refrigeration it worked great. Thx! I’ve been burned by some pinterest recipes lately, and so happy I found your site.

i made these for a sort-of potluck at our last sunday class, and they were totally snapped up! i didn’t actually get to try a slice haha. the buttercream frosting is especially heavenly (i did taste this since i made it :p) thank you, so glad i found this recipe!

These look great! I wanted to double the recipe to make in a larger pan, 9 tap sounds like a lot of espresso powder, even for a double recipe, but I use it so infrequently that I am unsure….would you recommend I use less, or do you think the 9 tsp will be fine – I definitely want the mocha flavor, just didn’t want them to be bitter or like taking a bite out of black coffee…